How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Discourses and Selected Writings
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Epictetus was born a slave around 50 ad. His owner was Epaphroditus, a rich freedman who was once a slave of Nero. Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Epictetus was lame and there are some stories it was caused by his master and others that it was caused by disease.
He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. He then started his school in Greece, and had many students. He did not leave any writings from his lessons, but one of his students, Flavius Arrian, took notes and wrote the Discourses.
Epictetus did not marry, had no children, and lived to be around 80-85. In retirement, he adopted a child that would have been abandoned and raised him with a woman.
He died sometime around AD 135.
He is my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of one of his lessons. Epictetus’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
To those who fail to achieve their purposes
Consider which of the things that you purposed at the start you have achieved, and which you have not; likewise, how it gives you pleasure to recall some of them, and pain to recall others, and, if possible, recover also those things which have slipped out of your grasp. For men who are engaged in the greatest of contests ought not to flinch, but to take also the blows; for the contest before us is not in wrestling or pankration*, in which, whether a man succeeds or fails, he may be worth a great deal, or only a little,—yes, by Zeus, he may even be extremely happy or extremely miserable,—but it is a contest for good fortune and happiness itself. What follows? Why here, even if we give in for the time being, no one prevents us from struggling again, and we do not have to wait another four-year period for another Olympic festival to come around, but the moment a man has picked himself up, and recovered himself, and exhibits the same eagerness, he is allowed to contest; and if you give in again, you can enter again; and if once you win a victory, you are as though you had never given in at all.
*Pankration (/pænˈkreɪti.ɒn, -ʃən/;[citation needed] Ancient Greek: παγκράτιον [paŋkráti.on]) was an unarmed combat sport introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques but also others, such as kicking, holds, joint locks, and chokes on the ground, making it similar to modern mixed martial arts.(From Wikipedia)
There have been a few times I have failed at things I tried to accomplish. I have also had my ass whipped more times than I care to remember, sometimes in training and a few times for real. On the whole, I have won more than lost, and losing never deterred me from sparring against the same person and sometimes I learned new techniques in losses. In life I am not as determined. When I have setbacks it is easy for me to quit before I get too far invested. I am working on this weakness.
5Only don’t begin cheerfully to do the same thing over again out of sheer habit, and end up as a bad athlete, going the whole circuit of the games, and getting beaten all the time, like quails that have once run away.[1] “I am overcome by the impression of a pretty maid. Well, what of it? Wasn’t I overcome just the other day?” “I feel strongly inclined to censure somebody, for didn’t I censure somebody just the other day?” You talk thus to us as though you had come off scot-free; just as if a man should say to his physician who was forbidding him to bathe, “Why, but didn’t I bathe just the other day?” If, then, the physician is able to say to him, “Very well, after you had bathed, then, how did you feel? Didn’t you have a fever? Didn’t your head ache?” So, too, when you censured somebody the other day, didn’t you act like an ugly-spirited man, like a silly babbler? Didn’t you feed this habit by citing the example of your own previous acts? And when you were overcome by the maid, did you escape scot-free? Why, then, do you talk about what you were doing just the other day? In my opinion, you ought to have remembered, as slaves remember their blows, and to have kept away from the same mistakes.
Having set backs and making mistakes are both part of life. If I don’t learn from them, then I am not improving. I try not to repeat the same mistakes, but sometimes bad habits rear their ugly heads and I find myself getting irrationally angry when stupid things interfere with what I am trying to work on. When this happened to me last week as I was putting a starter in my truck, I took a breath and realized it was past lunch time and I was hungry. In years past, I would not have figured out the core issue and would have powered through, spitting mad the whole time. Writing that makes it sound stupid, but for years that was how I would work on vehicles, just angry at everything, yet I wondered why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I used to.
10But one case is not like the other; for with slaves it is the suffering which produces the memory, but in the case of your mistakes, what suffering is there, what penalty do you feel? Why, when did you ever acquire the habit of avoiding evil activities?
99% of my suffering has been self induced. While I still get sad when I think about losing my mom last year, it didn’t bother me as much as I was expecting it to. My worst habits have been hurting myself more than that. While I am confident that my outlook and attitude have improved immensely, I still struggle with doing things without anger and having a mindset of gratitude for what I have and not looking at what I don’t have.
I was not around last week, but Chipping Pioneer had this comment:
Chipping Pioneer on April 4, 2025 at 01:24 PM[+][Mute][Nuke]
I jumping in late on stoicism. Where do I start? From what I can tell, the top of the post is the same every week.
I would recommend starting with the Daily Stoic. For the fist read through, don’t worry about the “daily” format. I read a month a day when I first started. It is a solid introduction.
Then I read through Meditations. Marcus Aurelius wrote them for his own guidance, but they do a good job of expanding on some of the basic concepts.
After that I went through the Daily Stoic again but a week at a time. It made more sense on the second read.
Then I read Seneca’s letters while I did the daily Stoic one day at a time. It was during this time that I started writing this weekly essay.
I will be here this week if you have questions.
*crickets*
That’s what happens when Douglas Adams is your story editor… Shada — when the strike fell!
That’s normal for these posts.
There was a line from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that really spoke to this, that I’m trying to remember. Something about needing to be in the right mindset for a task, and if your mindset was wrong, one would work that wrongness into the task itself. Probably time for a re-read…
It’s been many decades since I read that. I may have to reread it as well.
Thanks Ron. I’m trying to be more stoic with interactions with the teaming masses of NYC and the cell phone zombies.
Can’t stop the signal, Sensei.
Zombies!
High School Of the Dead LIVE Kishida Kyoudan & the Akeboshi Rockets
Where’d everyone go?
batin
Electrician came to change a breaker. Also work meetings. Busy Friday.
“I hear you have ze problem with ze cable?”
Dealing with work shite, making sure the afternoon links are set. Normal Friday stuff.
Buying ammo for next month.
I don’t think I’ve bought anything gun related in 2025.
🙁
*requests wellness check for Sean*
No steaks?
LOL@ZWAK.
Of course. Porterhouses on sale this weekend for $7.99/lb
I’ve only bought ammo, club memberships, and a few optics and magazines.
Have you at least been practicing?
I spent easily close to $2k on gun stuff this year so far. And I’m not as serious as some of you.
@ES
*hangs head in shame*
Nope, none in 2025. My membership is current though.
I don’t have enough ammo. Blah.
UCS: What’s the ETA on your permission slip?
I have an appointment to talk to the judge later this month. Don’t know how long after that it’ll take to process.
Work work workity work work pretty much… the curse of mid-day links, I would think. I’m just doing drive by quick reading and heckling right now before going back to checking unit test output…
*yawns, stretches, scratches*
‘Sup, homies? I should probably do a chore this afternoon.
Look, I was at class. I couldn’t hop on the internet while making beer battered cod and cole slaw.
In my opinion, the recipe required for the class needs some serious tweaks – The slaw needs to have the apple and the sugar removed and mustard added, with some more mayo and much more salt/pepper, plus adding paprika. The cod batter needs more seasoning overall, as it came out a bit bland, and fell off the fish a lot.
If it is falling off the fish, the fish was too wet and too much flour stuck to it before it got the egg or mayo on. I find just a see-through hint of flour is enough for that first coat.
The instructor floured them. And they went right into the batter then into the fryer.
I want fish and chips now.
Season the batter more, and salt the fish before flouring the fish before battering the fish.
Yeah. I would say shake off as much flour as possible before battering. That will help. Otherwise it makes big flakes that pop off.
*crickets*
*respectful silence*
Villains
Getting rid of DEI is not the only issue driving Moms for Liberty. The group has pushed for banning books on racism, discrimination, sexuality or LGBTQ+ rights. Some of its members post anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, and at one chapter meeting in Arkansas a few years ago, a member was recorded talking about gunning down a school librarian.
The group was founded at the height of the pandemic, when many parents rallied against mask mandates and school closures and shouted down members of school board meetings.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the group extremist in 2023 after the National School Board Association asked the Biden administration to intervene as threats against school staff and school board members spiked. The Justice Department promised to investigate and prosecute anyone intimidating or threatening violence.
NPR wants us to know: teachers are feeling oppressed and muzzled.
All this outlier- wing idiocy (from both sides) is so tiresome.
Partly true. My gf is surrounded by batshit crazy liberals.
Well if the SPLC says they’re extremists I guess we can’t listen to them.
Those notorious slander merchants and vexatious litigants?
Their word is basically blackmail.
Well they are the gold standard, true gods among men when it comes to attacking hate and by hate I mean political disagreement.
When will the SPLC run out of USAID money?
North Sentinel Island has a 5.0 review rating on Google Maps
I hope we put some high tariffs on them.
Damn right!
They fall under the international jurisdiction of India, who’s already negotiating.
I suppose since India levies crininal penalties for attempting to land on the island, they are properly represiented, as the Sentinalese themselves have shown no inclination towards wanting contact with the outside world.
Aren’t they the indigenous tribe that murders people that set foot on the island? They do sound like a fun bunch.
That’s them.
Well, you can be sure they aren’t culturally appropriating anyone.
Commodore Perry stirs restlessly in his grave.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/11:
*21/21 words (+13 bonus words)
📖 In the top 1% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 04/11:
*67/67 words (+47 bonus words)
📖 In the top 4% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 881
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjaqrPpdQYc 47… wow…
Only plausible explanation
Thomas Lee, a managing partner and the head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, sent a memo Wednesday that painted a picture of the fallout from the president’s trade war. Lee wrote that he has had “many conversations” with macro fund managers who are expressing concern that those in the White House aren’t acting rationally — and who worry the tariffs go beyond politics and policy.
“Some even fear that this may not even be ideology,” Lee wrote. “A few have quietly wondered if the President might be insane.”
OMG the guy isn’t putting our financial interests first!
In his defense when I need a judgement on someone’s sanity I do ask myself “I wonder what that shady group of macro fund managers thinks?”
Just months ago we were upset that Harris voters weren’t putting their financial interests first.
I have designed my first stage based on reading the USPSA rulebook! When I have it .pdf’d, I’ll post it.
I’ve named it “Rule 1.1.5.3”
Hrmm….
I’m a proponent of having relevant names.
Too many Match Directors decide to name their stages thematically, which means you can’t remember the names when trying to commiserate so you have to say things like “That one stage on the top range that had those two half-hard cover IPSC targets over on the left.”
If I were USPSA President, I’d delete all the sub-sections under 1.1.5 and replace them with nothing (well, maybe 1.1.5.2 would get a pass.)
Remaining Stoic today. First official overnight house guests arrive at Stately R.J. manor tomorrow.
Realtor has a showing on the cabin tomorrow, a closing on Monday on another piece of property. Monday I’ll be a stoic SOB, it’ll take 2-3 Glib size (UCS/DEG) to wipe the smile off my face.
Got the chain saw out yesterday and started cleaning up the yard. A couple trees down, lots of limb to pick up. Glad the snow season, in all likelihood, is over.
Mrs F gets a birthday dinner tonight at her favorite VN restaurant, she invited me as her escort.
NOW YOU’VE JINXED IT!
“Because of my family’s commitment to these issues, I spent 200 hours … with the retarded when I was in high school,” Kennedy said at one point. “So I was seeing people with intellectual disabilities all the time. I never saw anybody with autism.”
I thought this was on NG list of PC words?
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/rfk-jr-says-the-deep-state-is-real-references-past-work-with-the-retarded-in-private-speech-to-fda-staff-00286826
Nope. It’s ok to say again. Didn’t you get the memo?
I’m imagining it with a nice Boston accent too.
Ok but yeah, I don’t think it’s about logic, Rick. I-I think the word has just become a symbolic issue for powerful groups that feel like they’re doing the right thing.
OT – TW Ars…
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/is-there-a-grand-unified-theory-of-cocktails-maybe/